She woke, panic shot through her, not the nightmares of Equestria consumed in balefire but rather the feeling one gets when they have slept through their alarm and are certainly going to be late. Her hoof swiped desperately for her alarm clock and by the time she was awake enough to see she was holding a rock she remembered the world ending.

“...oh… ohhhhh… Celestia damn it…” She cringed as the fear returned along with the aches and pains. It felt like just yesterday that she had come home from work to find the message on her answer machine. Like it was just yesterday that she heard the burst of gunfire and the little colt scream for his mother. Just yesterday that she saw balefire rising from the south, felt the heat searing against her before they were lowered into the vault.

She froze, her mind glancing back at the image, she had not seen that. She was unconscious for that event, or so she thought. Her logic shot up front and center in her mind telling her that she was not unconscious but in shock, this let her see the event and record it in her memories without realizing what she saw. She got to the stable elevator somehow. Obviously she was stronger inside than she knew and it just took a little bit of shock and head trauma to bring it bubbling to the surface.

Head trauma. “That feathered little jerk hit me!” She rubbed her forehead with a hoof, clearly she could feel the swollen lump and feel the pain. She had no doubt that both her eyes were blackened from such a heavy strike. For such a small Griffon he hit very hard.

It may have seemed like yesterday but it was clear by the stable she just climbed out of and the state of the dead world just outside that it had been at the very least ten years. Her mind spun as she winced the moment she pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. Another miracle that they were not broken. The panic inside stirred but didn't take over, she just needed something to focus on, and the logical part of her brain quickly stepped in. “Depending on how many megaspell detonations, the disbursement of the impact zones, and other smaller variables. With this much radiation just about everywhere it could have been anything from ten to 400 years… Give or take… if the rumors were true on numbers vs viable targets, with this much radiation it should have been about 15 years… yes.. That does sound right..”

She clopped her hooves together. Logical Lexi was her favorite Lexi, especially when she needed to take her mind off things like the war, MoM inspections, and now the world ending, she was always happy she was a smart pony and these little habits made life just a little easier. Just as she had the 'logical Lexi' she kinda hated, scared Lexi, it was her least favorite, she hated feeling helpless. She was never a fighter, and never intended to become one, but sheer logic and strategy always gave her a leg up and a hoof in the door over anypony else. Had she been a unicorn like her mother she would have been at the heart of the ministry of magic, she knew that much at the very least. She had always been confident that she didn't need to be brave, or strong to have power, her mind was all the muscle she needed. That is until the world ended, but confidence was still very helpful.

Standing up, she still felt all the soreness combined with the pain in her face. However, what caught her attention was a note that fluttered in her face with her bangs. Somepony or some griffon had pulled her bobby pin out and used it to secure a note to her now loose mane. It took a fair bit of time to get her mane back into its simple high pony tail, most of that time was spent envying all unicorns and their magic vs her own annoying hooves. Once she was yet again up to her own standards she opened the note. “For a creature with opposable thumbs that griffon has terrible hoofwriting.”

She cleared her throat and peered over the messy writing. “Dear stupid mud pony, I would say that I am sorry for headbutting you, but I am not a liar. I am not sorry because you are annoying, but sorry feels like something you would want me to say so sorry I guess. Now firstly, I am assuming you have brain damage or have been living under a rock to not know your way around which is why I took the time to write this note. Please note that headbutting you was better than shooting you. Go south for shanty town, west for Pasternville. Pasternville is further but you will have everything you need there. However, in shanty town you should be able to get the general layout of who is who and what is what so you don't die horribly after the first night in the wasteland like the stupid mud pony you are. PS, if you got bottlecaps, next time start with trying to hire me rather than appeal to my sense of morality.”

Lexicon grumbled and crinkled up the note in her hooves before tossing it to the ground. She was so upset that she almost did not hear the beep from her new pipbuck. Looking it over she could clearly see the two locations show up on the map.

She blinked. She knew how advanced the magic was within these things, but she did not quite grasp what kind of magic could possibly pick the location of a place from just its name being said or read. Such things usually require a great deal of pre programming. Like the technology knowing the information ‘before’ listing it. It was little impossible things like this that drove her up the wall. But having her division been inspected by the Ministry of Moral a few times already, she had seen the downright frightening powers of its ministry mare. She could deal with the mystery. Hell she could and would rather deal with just about anything over spending even 12 seconds around the old pink mare. Even the most illogical nonsensical garbage chaos filled impossibilities seemed easier to accept than half the crap that came out of the infamous ministry mare of the Ministry of Moral.

She swatted herself remembering to focus. She needed Logical Lexi at the moment. Grumbling and trying to focus she killed the panic with remembering that with the number of logical targets and the amount of residual radiation left over, clearly there had to be something left of Equestria. She just needed a few things first.

“Ok… Pasternville was a decently sized city… not huge but it's ok in size. Not big enough or important enough for a balefire bomb and…” She grinned eagerly. “I can check on home, sure a few years with desperate looting ponies might leave it a little rough. But nopony can get through that lock to the safe room, to my library.”

Despite everything, logical Lexi left her feeling like she was on top of the world, or at least what was left of it. The trip to the Stable was just about five minutes by hoof back when the world ended, she was a little unsure where to go from here but she had faith that-. Her Pipbuck beeped and she took a look at the map where something tagged ‘home’ just showed up. She growled, remembering the oddness of that old pink pony in relation to the all knowing technology of the pipbuck. In the end she just let out an explosive sigh and started towards her home. The map said it was just a half hour walk from Pasternville and only a two minute walk from her current location. She had quite a plan though, assuming that her neighbor was not still alive or nopony else came by and looted all of what she needed for her plans.

The walk was difficult, not because the terrain was rough or she was ill equipped, but because the very moment her new pipbuck gave so much as the slightest click Lexicon would let out a sharp ‘EEP’ and go ten steps back trying to mentally map out the radiation. This cycle of forward and backwards ended up turning a two minute trip into a half hour trip. Her mind was brimming with all manner of thoughts and fears. The complete disarray of the world around her could mean very few things, either her calculations were off which were unlikely or Equestria as a nation had been set back in quite an extreme to not have teams of ponies actively engaged in some sort of clean up.

“Then again… Canterlot was sure to be one of the primary targets for a megaspell detonation. Perhaps the Princesses are inured… or Celestia forbid… no longer with us…” She gave a shiver as she continued on with caution. “Well obviously, regardless to their status, they would not be able to restore anything so far north within the first few decades, I can't think of any other reason why slavery would be allowed to become a thing again unless that stupid bird was lying. And that note did say he wanted bottlecaps perhaps it's a griffon currency… I imagine that with Equestria so horribly damaged in the war… Bits have fallen out of fashion. Not to mention rather rare. Then again everything Equestrian should be rather rare after a dozen or so megaspells and the hoarding which would occur after such an event. Something as common and generally worthless as bottlecaps would make for a great impromptu currency. But if anypony got the old sparkle cola factories up and running they could just mass print money… oh! Unless the current Equestrian efforts are spent maintaining and guarding the factories… that would explain a lot. After all its smartest to expand slowly and surely. Can't have another resource problem by expanding rapidly. Just take care of our nation slowly…” She giggled with glee at logical Lexi’s reasoning despite the aching feeling that she was ignoring a few factors for her own comfort.

She smiled happily feeling quite accomplished. Regardless to the situation, she knew she needed to get her hooves on some bottle caps and stay low. Perhaps she could get to Pasternville, and from there she would learn just how things had progressed in equestria and how to get to civilization. This far up north she was sure to find not much in terms of civilization. There had not been much up here before the war, and honestly aside from a few trade routes and cities or research centers the northernmost parts of Equestria was still just a little wild.

She continued gingerly until things started to look a little familiar. Groves of dead trees and crumbling buildings. Though logical Lexi seemed agitated, yelling at her from inside her own head. Something about the place seemed to disagree with her. However, that went right out the window when she saw what could only be salvation.

Right there, just outside her old housing district, there was a fresh camp, not only a fresh camp but an icon she knew very well. An apple, gears, and sword. “Ah! Applejack’s steel rangers. At last, somepony civilized” She had some level of experience with them before the bombs fell, she was after all in the ministry of wartime technology and they came through the research facility all the time. “Finally I can see some civilization and decency… not to mention I can get into my library and salvage what I can in preparation for the trip.” She knew project Bubonem wasn't likely to be very useful with the world in its current state, but it would be useful eventually.

It did not take long to get further into the apartment complex. It was in total ruin, to the point where she began to have some slight doubts on her time in the Stable theory. The math did not lie but there was certainly a chance her statistics were compromised by outside variables. But she still wanted so badly for there to be an Equestria left out there somewhere for her to return to.

She pushed the doubts and her theory into the back of her mind as she continued, searching for Applejack’s rangers. Her mind burned with eagerness hoping to finally get out of this horrible wasteland and getting back into her library where she could study and continue strengthening Equestria with her work into the ancient past.

Nopony was at the campsite but she held up her hope. There were signs that the area was being searched. Door frames were broken and not weathered along the fractures, so the doors had to have been destroyed or broken down at the very least recently, and the camps had not been cleared up yet. But there had to be a reason that the rangers were not currently here. If she remembered correctly, she had never seen less than two of the armored soldiers in an area at a time, and each of the present encampments had to be for at least five. Considering how the amount of gear present it was more likely double or even triple that just to ensure that they would have one shift sleeping at all times and they would need more able bodies to move everything. However, the tents were empty so it was more likely just double, or something important was happening.

She smiled happy again with her logical breakdown as she continued her slow trot.

“Hey…” The griffon said nonchalantly from inside his cage.

“Oh hey…” She continued to trot but then stopped. She rubbed her head and looked back. “Oh… HEY!... wait.. What are you doing here… and why are you in a cage?” She pointed a hoof at him, needing to take a moment to realize that it was the same young griffon from before. “Croce!”

“Well, I tried to sneak a little too close, but the Steel Rangers caught me and threw me in here, but as for what I am currently doing, honestly, I am waiting for you to be caught so they will open the door to throw you in and that will give me a chance to stab them in the throat so I can try and fly away… but you know… Waiting can take a while… How about you mud pony?”

She facehoofed and composed herself before resorting to a few short questions. “What do you mean the Steel Rangers put you in there?... are you working for the Zebras?...” She felt odd letting the question roll off her tongue. Throwing around the Z word always prompted a surprise MoM visit.

His chest twitched as if he almost let a laugh escape. “Zebras?... are you joking?...”

“Then explain why you are in a literal cage! The Ministry of Wartime Technology is not some comic book supervillain organization. The Steel Rangers would not put you in there unless yo..”

She was promptly cut off as a sharp pain exploded in her head and everything went dark. Everything seemed hazy and there was a tremendous amount of pain in the back of her head, she could tell she was being pulled on and picked up before being placed gingerly back down. It took a just a little longer before she mumbled and looked up at the Griffon. Lexicon rubbed the back of her head, wincing at the pain.

Struggling to her hooves she glared at him angrily. “Why did you hit me?!”

The 'you're stupid' smirk behind his beak made her suddenly stop and ask herself ‘how’ he hit her. It was then she noticed there were currently no bars between her and Croce. She whipped about and adjusted her glasses to see a rather large pony in power armor. “Ah! Hey… over here! Let me out!”

She did not quite notice at first but after a few seconds she took in a few more ponies in the area, but only one was wearing the armor. The others however were plainly wearing dingy uniforms. Most of them were young but those who were not were clearly not fit for combat. Long deep potentially crippling scars over their bodies or very old age.

A younger mare spared her a worried look but she was firmly pulled back to face front by the armored Ranger. “Don’t pay the Tribals any attention. You will never make it to knighthood if you let your emotions conflict with your orders…” His voice was deep, almost agitated sounding, and clearly male.

Lexicon took notice of her Pipbuck in the mare’s hooves but was more concerned with what the armored stallion had said. “Wait… what?..Tribals?” Lexicon tried to make sense of it but defaulted to a more reliable choice outside of internally debating what somepony’s words mean. All this was nonsense, so she would use the only thing she knew that a civilized ministry pony would respond to.

“Ministry of wartime technology level two Librarian department, project Bubonem, serial number 29093010491860-L-M! Let me out of this damned cage!” She huffed, and stared out, she never had much authority, but knowing what to say to security usually got them to leave her alone.

All the older ponies and the armored one turned around at that causing her to smile with some hope. The armored Stallion came closer and stared down at her. He towered over her making her knees weak with a spike of fear. “Where did you learn that?...”

“At work… It’s my ministry ID code. Lexicon 29093010491860.. I’m with the ministry of Wartime Technology.” She felt confident but every second she stared up at the empty steel face of the ranger’s helmet she could feel that confidence melting away.

“That’s impossible which means you are lying… so tell me how you came to know that information..” A very very large minigun at his side leveled with her face and began to spin up.

Croce took two quick steps to the side with a sigh, the look on his face just said ‘I don’t want your insides getting my armor dirty’. Lexicon’s ears folded back and her pupils shrank as she quickly tried to find a way out of the situation. “I..It’s true!... I was just coming here to get to my safe room. I have supplies and my books in there!”

The minigun stopped spinning but remained leveled at her. “Number 278 of building 15?..” His cold emotionless mask of a helmet stared down at her and she did her best to nod. She did not want to question him on how he knew the exact number of her home. The others behind the ranger murmured in surprise but went silent when the ranger contiued. “What is the code to get in?”

Lexicon did not like this at all but giving up her library was a lot less painful than getting turned into paste. Maybe after this they would know she was telling the truth. “LTG35772A…” She shivered unable to move from her spot likewise unable to take her eyes off the minigun barrels.

A sudden flood of relief shot through her as the barrels moved away from her. “Scribbles!... watch them… and do NOT talk to them…” The stallion's bulk moved briskly away from the cage.

The young mare from before set Lexicon’s pipbuck on a nearby table and nodded. All the others gathered a few things and quickly made their way towards building 15 which despite how much had changed or become ruin, she remembered was just around the corner. But it didn’t matter to her now. It was all just too overwhelming. She slowly just curled up and pouted in the cage.

“Project Bubonem?... you were a part of project Bubonem?... how?” Lexicon looked up and nearly jumped back seeing the mare’s soft violet eyes looking at her.

“Wh..what do you mean how? Its…” Lexicon paused looking over the debris and damage to the area. It could not have been 15 years. It had to have been longer. Maybe something like 30 or 40. That could account for the degraded surroundings and more. But that would mean there would have been many more bombs than she thought. “It’s been more than 15 years hasn’t it? What is left of Equestria?”

The mare looked at her with wonder and a shade or two of sorrow. Her lips parted and she was about to speak when she flinched, her eyes trailing up and she began to step back in fright. A paw landed firmly on Lexicon’s head pushing her face into the dirt and metal of the cage. Talons shot out and quickly wrapped over the face of the mare called Scribbles. There was a sudden quick twist and a wet snap before she fell to the ground twitching.

Lexi forced herself to her hooves heaving and shivering. She had nothing in her to throw up but none the less this was something that would haunt her forever. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?”

“Shut it mud pony… you’re lucky I’m here.” Croce grumbled as he pulled Scribble’s body in close and rifled through her saddlebags. It did not take him long before frustration spread over his features, then fear showed up in his eyes. “She… she doesn’t have the key...FUCK!... Shit shit shit!”

His talons raked across the bars in frustration. He continued even when his talons began to bleed. Though Lexi's outrage over the death fed her a little courage and she spouted out. “... A key?... you killed her for a key?”

“They key to this cage! Without it we can’t leave, and they will come back and find her dead. They won’t keep either of us along very much longer after that. Damn it all!” His paw kicked the steel bars. He was too angry to complain about the pain in his toes.

Piecing together the logical outcome, Lexicon could only agree on the death part. Soon, the panic just like from the minigun returned. She whimpered looking back and forth before she looked at the lock. A flood of hope filled her and she pulled one of her bobby pins from her hair then swiped a small shard of metal off the ground. It was very difficult with just her hooves and mouth but she twisted the metal into the lock to keep up tension and inserted the slightly altered bobby pin into the lock.

“Wait!... you know how to pick locks?” Croce tried to see what she was doing with a fair amount of renewed hope.

“No… but I have a very good understanding of physics and I know how locks work.” She twisted and pulled at it but quickly fumbled and dropped the pin. “Dang it!... ok… I think I have.. Um..”

He pushed her aside and grabbed the pin, electing to use his talons instead of the piece of metal. “Walk me through it… You can’t unlock it from this side using your mouth mud pony! Now hurry up… they will be out any minute!”

She didn’t like it but she breathed a little easier. “This is a really cheap lock. It’s only got three tumblers. You can tell by the length of the barrel. Just picture three poles that are all different lengths. Right now they are resting inside of holes. In order to unlock the lock, you have to push each pole up until it’s flush with the outside of the barrel, and keep tension on the lock in order to catch the pins when they pop out.”

“That is lock picking?” The griffon asked skeptically, as if wondering why he never tried it before.

“That’s physics. I know how a lock works. After that it’s just knowing how to manipulate the moving parts in your favor to substitute the key! Just remember that it will be under pressure, so you will hear a click when you get a pin up.”

It did not take long at all before Croce’s talons rotated and he laughed. “Well look at that!” He opened the door and quickly rushed over to rifle through a small crate and pull his pistol and the rest of his gear.

Lexicon too quickly exited and grabbed her pipbuck, she strapped it in place and shivered looking back at Scribbles. “I still can’t believe you killed her!”

“Welcome to the wasteland mud pony… that’s just kinda how things go.” The griffon chuckled and fed a magazine into the handle of his weapon, quickly racking the slide with a grin. But his grin vanished with a twitch and he rapidly threw himself back as a stream of death shot out at him tearing the spot he was just standing into smoldering ruin.

Lexicon dove and hid under a nearby table set up for what looked to be some sort of service station for power armor. Looking around desperately she tried her best to find a way to either escape or stop the conflict. Which in her own personal opinion would have been much easier if her legs were not petrified with fear.

After having leaped under the table, all the poor mare could hear was rapid gunfire punctuated by a heavy caliber pistol returning fire. Before the bombs dropped, which for all she had experienced was might as well not even been yesterday, she had never even been within 10 yards of a gun going off. The effect of the event exploding onward around her was a tad stressful and at the moment she found her legs unwilling to move. In fact the only thing she managed to do is pout, blubber and try not to make noise loud enough for the Ranger to hear her.

Wallowing in fear and paralysis did not get any better as a loud ‘thump’ sounded, it was followed up quickly as she watched the cage they just escaped from explode flying high then crash down just out of her sight. The thing that drove her even further into fear was that Croce had stopped firing. He was not so much her friend, but she knew that if he had wanted to kill her, he certainly would have a dozen times over, before and after the cage, which she couldn't say about the rangers.

Heavy armored hoof falls sounded. Closer and closer they came. Lexicon struggled to even breath. She flinched at every step she could hear the ranger take. There was a loud clack and whirl of the minigun reloading. Huddling up she clenched her eyes shut demanding of herself that she not make a single sound, but that went out the window as the large ranger pivoted on his front legs and delivered a powerful applebuck to the table she was hiding under. The armor servicing station uprooted and was tossed away like if it was a toy.

She did the only thing she could, the one thing she had been trying not to do since the gunfire had began. She screamed.

The motor purred as the minigun began to spin. She refused to look, she could feel the heat coming off of it. Not even logical Lexi wanted to tell her just how far away that meant it was. She just sat there smelling the cordite and listening to the whirring and clicking. The ranger did not say anything. He just stood there as if waiting to see if she had any plans or last efforts. Clearly, she didn’t.

A torrent of gunfire sounded and she was unable to even flinch. But when the sound of a wet meaty splatter accompanied by a heavy metal thud of the ranger hitting the ground filled her ears, she finally opened her eyes.

“Oh hell yes… Whoever made armor piercing bullets I could kiss you….”

Croce was pinned under the metal remains of the cage, but he had one arm free despite the excessively limited range of motion he had he got his chance and just emptied his pistol into the back of the ranger’s head.

Lexicon was still in shock just staring in fear. Croce did his best to try and clear his throat to spit a bloody loogie and then speak as loudly as he could. “You little fuckers wanna avoid becoming like your metal buddy here I highly suggest you leave!...”

The others did not stick around at all. All the unarmored scribes quickly dashed off as fast as they could. Clearly if they knew he was pinned and out of ammo they would not have even considered leaving. But off they went, it was another thirty seconds or so before Croce called out to her.

“Hey… mud pony… a little help?” She looked back over at him. She could barely even move, but still she barely managed to get to her badly shaking hooves. Even more embarrassingly she made the discovery that she had wet herself in the fight. Quickly as she could move, which was not very fast she came closer hardly able to pry her eyes off the dead. The ranger’s head was a bloody pulp inside the spaghetti strainer of a helmet he wore. “A little faster please… There is a whole lot more of them.. I have no idea when they are coming back.”

She took another step and felt something wet on her hooves. She cringed and tried not to fall over again when she noticed by the rags on the bloody mess that she had just stepped in was what remained of Scribbles even more torn up in the firefight. “W...why?...”

“Because when they first captured me I had to make up some BS about being able to break into a nearby Stable. A lot of us know it's around here somewhere, but no one has the codes to get through the door. I convinced them I had the code so they sent most of their paladins off to the vault and only sunshine here and his scribes stayed behind.” Despite being trapped and bleeding under the rubble and debris he seemed rather cheerful.

“N...no.. w..why… why did they have to die…” Slowly she felt something stronger getting a hold of her. The same feeling that she had when she saw him cut off the ‘slaver’s’ head and break Scribble’s neck. It was more outrage than despair and fear. “Wh..why did you have to kill them? Couldn’t you have just knocked them out or something?”

“Mud pony...I would LOVE to have this talk with you right now… but sadly we can’t. We have much better things to do, we have to get going quickly. Now help me out of this hole and we can part ways… I’ll never bother you again… probably…” He chuckled but she shook her head, pain still clear in her eyes. “Look! I’m sorry. I don’t know what rock you’ve been living under but this is the wasteland! You either learn how to kill and run or you die. There is a billion and one things out here that will kill you, whether it’s because you might have loot, might be dangerous or because it gets some raider’s rocks off. They will kill you and not give a damn. You have to learn when to kill and when to run. That is just the wasteland.

She leaned in looking at him. Her eyes still watering from the emotional overload. She stepped to one side and pointed with a hoof at what used to be the Scribe Scribbles. “You… you killed her for a key. A key she didn’t even have. She just wanted to ask me questions… Questions that would have given me answers… she was even younger than me!... and you just killed her outright! She didn’t even have a chance…”

“Perhaps… but that is just the wasteland…” He shrugged with the one shoulder that was not pinned

“The wasteland?... she died just because it was convenient? just because you thought it might benefit you? Just like how you are currently inconvenienced?…” She gestured to all the debris pinning the young griffon.

Croce’s face clearly displayed that he did not like where this was going. “They put me in a cage!... they put YOU in a cage! They took our crap and caged us. They might as well be raiders. And they were going to kill us both the moment they confirmed whether or not we had anything valuable. Just let me out from under this crap! I’ll even take you to Pasternville, first class bodyguard, I’ll get you there in one piece, and you can do whatever you want once you are there ok?” He looked at her, into her eyes but saw only the shock she was neck deep in. She looked practically hollow.

“But… then that would not be the wasteland…” Her response was slow and sluggish. Her eyes teared up more and she slowed only to look away and slowly begin turn to walk away.

“Hey! No you don’t! You won’t last a day in the wasteland, hell it’s a downright miracle you lasted this long. Get me out and I’ll protect you for a month!” His voice became more desperate as she continued to walk. “Don’t leave me here damn it!” She continued, sniffing and moving forward. Logical Lexi was very faint in her heart but demanded she turn back. Other Lexis was well told her to go back, the only thing that kept her walking away was the realization that Equestria was gone. Whatever this horrible nightmare was, it most certainly was not Equestria.

“A year then! Damn it! Don’t leave me!... you bitch! If you do this I am dead, you are killing me! This is why your stupid country died! You ponies could not get your own heads out of your asses! Screwing off until you die! Stubborn assed pieces of s..” He erupted into coughing and blood sprayed out in a fine mist from his breath.

He didn’t see her stop. He didn’t see her fall to her knees and start to cry. Something along the lines of philosophical Lexi nudged her, yelling into her ear. ‘He’s right. This is not the Equestria we lived in, it’s not the Equestria we loved. This...' what she was doing, if she kept walking she could not truly call herself Equestrian. She had no right to be pained by the loss of the world she lost if she would just turn around and embrace this wasteland in some vain attempt to get back at it. This horrible wasteland was not something she could punish, and just leaving somepony to die was not how a pony acted. Her mother always told her the stories of six brave mares who acted with honesty, generosity, kindness, and more, those stories and that culture was what made Equestria. She stopped and wiped her eyes.

Croce had only just finished coughing and resigned his futile struggling. He slumped forward, even though his arm was free he had very limited range with it, he even needed to really stress the limits its mobility to aim low enough to hit the ranger in the back of the head. And this was why he opened his eyes in confusion when his talons hit the ground in front of him. Lexicon had pulled the rock away and rolled it over to use as a fulcrum to a large tree branch which she struggled to get into position. It took a bit but she got it into position.

Croce stared over at her many emotions clearly running through him. Surprise and anger were pretty high up on the list. “Well I’m quite happy you changed your mind…” His voice still showed he was a little more than just angry at her.

She sniffed and rubbed an eye before wiping her nose. “W...well a year with a tough griffon mercenary as my servant… that sounds like it’s worth some time…” She did her best to laugh even though it was still going to be a little while before she was at 100% again.

With a quick heave the smaller earth pony hopped up on the makeshift lever and the wreckage lifted a fair amount. The griffon let out a yelp and crawled out as fast as he could manage. As quick as he could, the moment he was out he pulled two bright purple bottles from his bags and drank them down. She hadn't noticed or even thought about it at first but having a large cage fall on you would likely hurt a you in more than just the way of pain. She watched as Croce’s left paw turned and contorted back into what looked like a proper shape for a griffon’s paw.

“That looks pretty bad… you sure just a couple of potions will do it?” She gave a concerned look and he laughed.

“Oh I am fine, I’ve had worse and I’ll have worse. It’s just part of the job.” He stretched and his joints popped loudly. “I am pretty durable and as you should know, a griffon is always up to the job… speaking of which. I won’t lie and say I’m not pissed off at you, I could claim that you forced me into a contract against my will... but I did say a year, so until that time passes, I guess I’m your fucking bodyguard you stupid mud pony…” He snorted, something between annoyance and relief over his features. "Hell, maybe you will die before that and I'll be free. You mud ponies always seem eager to get yourselves killed."

She wanted to tell him to stop calling her that, but with the knowledge of her nearly leaving him to die literally seconds back in her mind she decided against it. And from the look of his face she felt he might not accept if she apologized at the moment either. She would have to wait until such a time where he thought she was not just saying to get him off her back.

Still rather put off from her own actions and thoughts she needed to say something, though Croce appeared to take the lead. “We have to get out of here fast. That stable is not very far away… I am honestly surprised that they have not figured out I was lying and came back yet… “

“But I have to get into my saferoom. There is stuff in there I need.” She looked at him, then seeing his 'are you serious?' stare she stamped her hooves like an upset filly. “

“Well you gave them the code to get in, and more than just that one of them heard it. They will come here, they will kill us both and they will take your shit. Or…. we both leave now, and they only take your shit… ok?” He stared down at her but just as her mind was teetering on trying to reason with him and submitting, the young griffon’s eyes shot wide and he let out a groan. “Orrrr we can wait around too long…”

There was a soft ‘schffffffff’ and instantly Croce tackled Lexicon and just as fast dashed away from the camp. She would have asked about the sound but his actions rather spelled it out for her and she nearly expected the heavy booming explosion that enveloped the ground right where they just were. But with how fast they were blasting through the ruins she felt confident that they would get away, even if she was strangely a little more upset at not getting to her library.

“Fuck!” Croce stopped hard letting Lexicon plow into his rear hard enough for her to pitch forward and roll over him, however he took the opportunity to roll with her, then with a firm kick of his paws and a rapid flapping of his wings Lexicon watched in horror as she was propelled into the air right in front of a Ranger whose dual miniguns were already spinning and beginning to fire. Thankfully the weapons were aimed solidly at where they were going to be before Croce pulled his maneuver and not yet adjusted for the griffon’s quick thinking.

Before she even touched the ground, Croce’s pistol pinged off of the ranger’s thick front facing armor and dug tiny holes in the ranger’s joints. It did relatively little until a hole popped through the visor. The Ranger’s guns went wild but quickly died as they fell to the ground. There was an annoyed grumble from Croce as he patted himself down and cursed silently, finally he slammed another magazine into the handle of his pistol and racked the slide. Almost instantly he was upon her and pulling her along again, but he stopped to look at the ranger again and smiled.

“Sweet!!! We are going to make it! Look at his back!” He gestured with his pistol at some severe damage to the Ranger’s rump. It was mostly repaired but it was clearly combat damage. “They didn’t get back till now because they were fighting something. Now whether that means they still are or not is undetermined, but it does mean that it makes sense that only one struck at us and only one is here. They must have taken casualties. Their numbers are reduced! We can probably even take our time leaving” He chuckled happily and Lexi still breathed heavily, frightened half to death of the fighting and death. Not to mention that she was still completely overwhelmed by literally everything.

“Can we go to my library?” She asked, still shaking. She wanted to have something familiar around her badly. Even if she knew it was a lie, she wanted to sit in her chair, hug her books to her breast and pretend Equestria was still out here and this was all a bad dream.

Her focus and the very beginning of Croce’s repeated ‘no’ was interrupted by a torrent of gunfire just a ways away. Croce looked to be ready to haul her off again but nothing around them appeared affected by the weapons discharge. He paused and listened carefully. “Only one ammo type…” There was a mare’s scream of pain that was cut short and Croce gave a wary smile. “Melee fighter, and it sounds like they are tearing the rangers up with eas…”

Half a Steel Ranger landed like so much tin covered wet meat just a yard from them.

Croce turned a bit pale. “Let’s get the hell out of here right now. That’s not a pony fighting them… It’s gotta be a pack of hellhounds or something bigger.” He grabbed onto her again and quickly took off, dragging her along as fast as he could go. However, a shadow passed overhead and as if by instinct he threw Lexicon into a nearby shed and instantly joined her. Popping out his clip and feeding another with orange banded bullets. His eyes looked panicked but he seemed to hold himself together pretty well.

Lexicon eyed him over, still in shock of course but this was the first time she really got a good look at him. He was quite young, he easily had some growing to do, and on top of that he seemed extremely focused. Scared out of his head but very focused. This put her off even more, despite his lack of losing it and freaking out she still did not like to see this young griffon so scared. He didn’t even look like this when she was leaving him to die, he just seemed angry and a little desperate then.

She watched as he stood on his paws, his eyes straight as ever, glaring down the barrel of his heavy pistol gripped in both of his talons. It was leveled so perfectly at the door to the shack. The years had not been kind for the small rusty shack They stood inside silent as a tomb save for both their heaving chests and Lexicon’s shaking legs. There was barely any light at all filtering through the pocked rusty holes of the sheet metal shack.

“C..Croce?...” She squeaked hoping that he could say something to calm her fright.

“Shhhhhhhh!” He nearly hissed as his aim faltered. As if second guessing himself.

She didn’t want to be quiet. She wanted to scream and cry. Cry until she woke up from this terrible nightmare. Her mind reached for anything it could to calm herself down. She settled on being thankful for the young Griffon for pulling her along. He could have been long gone by now if he had just flew off and left her to die.

She chewed her bottom lip in fright hoping and praying that he would say something, anything. But he stayed still as death, aiming at the door. It was only now that he seemed to have one paw hold all his weight as the other paw was barely touching the ground as if waiting for something. That something came a lot faster than it appeared he was ready for.

A hole exploded through the rusty sheet metal directly to his right and a massive set of claws wrapped over Croce’s chest and one of his arms. In one swift motion whatever it was, tore him clean through the wall and squeezed him like a toy. There was a loud wet crack of his arm snapping followed by what almost sounded like firecrackers which she could imagine was his ribs. His scream only lasted for a second before the beast threw him into a tree and reached back into the shack. The massive claws tightened around her head and tore her out as well. Though it was now that she could see clearly through her glasses, still miraculously resting on her nose. They were not claws holding her, it was a set of talons. She looked up at a gargantuan creature, a griffon with piercing brown predator like eyes. Easily 8 times the size of Croce, its dark brown feathers barely hid its excessively bulky muscles. Muscles that controlled the talons now wrapped over her head. She watched in terror as the tendons under the thick scaly talons came taut and the pressure over her head began to grow.

Lexicon the librarian did the only thing she could, through instinct of being basic prey and little else in a fight. She screamed.

Footnote: level 2 achieved

Perk added: Smarticles, You may not know how to hack terminals, pick locks, or upgrade guns. But you can certainly understand how such things would be approached. +5 to all intelligence related skills

This fanfiction is based on Fallout Equestria by Kkat, Fallout Equestria Pink Eyes by Mimezinga and Fallout Equestria Project Horizons by Somber ; a familiarity with the source material may aid your understanding.

Author - Sanguine Eyes
Chapter editor - Currently N/A
Earl: Concept artist, Proof reader.
Nick Valentine: Artist